End of Week One on Chemo

For those of you not on Facebook, I'm sorry to keep you waiting for an update. I was really REALLY weak on Sunday and Monday, but the nausea did subside slowly on Sunday. It slid into an uneasy queasiness on Monday, at which point I started trying to eat again. I'm sure a lot of the weakness was due to lack of nutrients; the rest was just sheer exhaustion from vomiting so much. I was feeling much better by Monday night and decided to work on Tuesday. I went in a bit late but stayed until my normal time and was able to work full days the rest of the week. Yay!!! I'm very happy to have the sick leave pool to fall back on, but I really do want to be at work as much as I can.

I said I worked full days -- that was except for today as well because I have to go in to Dr. Krekow's office every Friday for lab work. They did a CBC and I waited for the results. They didn't mean much to me, but Sue explained these numbers (I'll put them here for those who are truly curious; I also know at least two of my friends, maybe more, who read this blog are health care professionals):

WBC: 3.5 (low but still OK)

NE #: 2.3 (I'm not sure what this is, but Sue said 1.5 or more is good)

RBC: 3.98

HGB: 12.9 (less than 10 is bad)

There was a lot more, but that was all I got an explanation for. I will make sure to get more info next week. Basically, Sue seemed happy and said that I didn't need any medication for now to boost my counts. I also talked to her about an article I found online about treating chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) with a Haldol/Ativan/Benadryl cocktail, but instead of it being administered via suppository (which, frankly, is kind of icky but also the doc last weekend said it can cause irritation and infections), it was done via topical cream to the wrists. The article is here if you want to read it, or at least look at the abstract. I had faxed this article to Sue a few days ago, and she said she got it and had given it to their pharmacist to see what s/he thought. She also said that next time I have chemo, they are trying another oral antinausea med. I will take it on the day of the chemo before they start the drugs and continue it for 3-4 days; this med will be in place of Zofran (and I assume Phenergan). She said it's stronger than both. The on-call doc last weekend (whose name is actually Dr. Coyle, I learned today) said that Phenergan and Zofran were the strongest out there, so she either didn't know what she was talking about, or she was blowing smoke up my metaphoric skirt. I suspect the latter.

I also asked Sue about one particular minor but still very annoying side effect: my face is breaking out like crazy. I have had mild to moderately bad acne my whole life, but I had been doing really well since moving here; I think the climate just agreed much more with my skin. So I had stopped using my prescription topical meds (Differin, BenzaClin). She said to start using them again, which I had already done a few days ago, but she said there's not much to be done beyond that. She doesn't want to put me on oral antibiotics just for acne. I'm guessing she's afraid that I might build up an immunity to the antibiotic and then it might not work for something more serious.

The other thing I noticed in particular today is that my scalp was hurting a bit when I washed my hair this morning. Sue had told me that many people feel that way when their hair is getting ready to break off, so I'm assuming I won't have my hair for much longer. I can't remember whether I've said it here yet, so I'll say it now. I'm not putting up with any half-assed, super-thin, raggedy-looking bullshit for hair. When it starts to go, Kyle is shaving my head. I will likely wear bandanas, scarves, skull caps, or nothing if it's not too cold. Oh, and I have a cowboy hat that was my sister's! October is breast-cancer awareness month, so if I get stares from our students, I may just make them more "aware" :). I don't think I'm going to get a wig, but I might. I asked my friend Rafia (also librarian colleague and office neighbor) if she was good at tying head scarves; I thought she might be because she was raised Muslim and wore a head covering when she was younger. She said she had no talent with the head scarves at all, sadly, but she's going to ask her sisters if they know of good websites that have instructional videos for doing head scarves. If you know of any, please post link(s) here or on Facebook. Peace, Jody.